Pages

December 10, 2009

Lowell Traded To Texas For Max Ramirez

Friday AM Update: Not a done deal yet. Could be another 2-3 days as Texas wants more info on the Dr.'s reconstructed hip and the Sox want the same re Max-Ram*'s wrists. So maybe 75% done. Also because of the cash involved, Selig has to sign off on the deal and his office had not been asked as of last night.

You have to love the bat, but you somewhat question his overall tools defensively. Still, if he can catch a little bit I don't think you can ignore the offensive potential. This is definitely a guy who will hit for high average and I think he'll be a guy who has the ceiling to hit 20 homers a year in the big leagues.

He smokes balls to right-center (as a righthanded hitter). I mean, he just wears out that gap. But there's also big power to that side of the field, which is impressive. He hits to all fields, he's not afraid to shorten up his stroke when he has to ... he's just the complete package as a hitter. He turns on inside fastballs like nobody's business and handles offspeed pitches well. Great pitch recognition.

currently is in the Venezuelan Winter League to get some playing time after missing a hearty chunk of the year with wrist injuries. He is hitting .236/.355/.461/.815 in Venezuela and is tied for the league lead in homers with 11.

I agree, Nick. Watching him field was also painful. But I am always sad to see one of the good guys leave---a nice guy with seemingly little arrogance and a good team player. Hard to believe that the Rangers want those crotchety old legs. I wish him well, as long as he is not playing against us.

If we didn't get rid of Lowell this year, then I'd be seriously questioning WTF Theo was doing. Clubhouse "character" aside, isn't trimming injured old players from the roster a pretty basic part of keeping a team competitive?

It's no secret that the Red Sox, if they cannot significantly improve the lineup, will concentrate on better fielding, thus cutting down on runs allowed. Scutaro and Beltre (who they certainly have their eyes on) will help a huge amount in that regard.

Scottish James here. Definitely sad to see him go but it had a degree of inevitability about it. If Beltre comes, the defence will be much better and replacing Green/Lowrie and Tek with Scutaro and VMart, along with Beltre means that in a 'rebuilding year' the lineup won't be too shabby. All that and Gammons on ESPN - season can't come fast enough.

There's some talk on SoSH I found interesting about how moving Lowell (not done yet) is a good incremental move. Think of it this way: as soon as you move him, it leaves us with Youk at 3B and Kotchman at 1B. This is already an improvement defensively and at worst a wash offensively. Getting Beltre or (dare we hope?) Gonzalez would change the picture, again for the better, but as is we do more than OK. And Max Ramirez does have some upside offensively (sounds like not too much as a catcher).

As for money: we're paying him whether he's playing for us or not. He's a major defensive liability -- this sucks, because he's defensively pretty gifted, but injury is injury. If we needed a DH, he'd be in there, but we don't. (The trade can also be seen as a vote in confidence in the Large Father.)

On a personal level, it sucks to see Mike Lowell leave the team. Who doesn't like this guy?

See ya Mikey.Love the guy to death and know he's been a big part of some major accomplishments the last few years.....BUTIt was time.Although I do have to wonder if we got enough in return to offset his value as a reserve. Yeah, probably so. A good hitting back-up catcher will be something we're not used to having. Well, except for when Theo was playing bizzarro ball and treating Tek as the 1st string guy and Victor as the back-up. Anyway, the Doc would not have been happy in that role. I sounded off about wanting Figgins a week or 2 ago. Hate we didn't do that, but said at the time (I think) that Beltre would be good also. With Figgins gone, I definitely think we should go after Beltre.

This...is a terrible move. Max Ramirez is an atrocious defensive catcher coming off an injury and a bad season. We are essentially paying for yet another questionable DH. At least we knew Lowell could hit at the Major League level.

I read somewhere that the Sox are writing off 2010, just holding off for 2011 when there will be better picks on the market.

There is likely some truth to that, though the team is still too talented to think 2010 would be "written off". More than 2011, though, I think the FO does not want to damage its chances for the next five or six years by making short-sighted decisions now.

lol, i've been calling him Max Ram ever since these rumors started a few days ago...

and yup, 2010 isn't a WRITE-OFF per se, theo's just not willing to bet the farm for 2010 at the expense of 2011-2014. it's still a pretty good team he's fielding, but as its been said - not willing to give away our future to pick up studs for one year...we're not the yankees...

Redsock--he was a decent hitter while still suffering from an injury. If he is just that next year, this deal's a wash. But if he is AT ALL recovered from last year, this deal looks real dumb. We have enoguh 1b/DH types, and while Ramirez has hit in the minors he has

A. not yet proven he is more than a minor league player

B. not yet proven he is recovered from his wrist injury

and

C. not yet proven he is anything other than a far-below-average catcher/below-average 1b in the field.

Not seeing 9,000,000 dollars of worth in this guy, especially if Lowell has any sort of recovery.

I'm finding the discussion on SoSH about Beltre to be interesting. It may be that there isn't really another team for whom Beltre is a good fit, except perhaps the Giants, and even there it's iffy. Why should we have to give massive years and dollars to Beltre if there is no competition for him? Sure, Fenway will help him, but he's not an amazing hitter.

One of the heavy posters (Eric Van) wonders if there's not a deal in place for Beltre, and that they're just waiting for the Lowell trade to be finalized before announcing it. But in a way that goes against logic: is there any reason for Boras not to see if more of a market develops for Beltre over the winter? Or is he more motivated to get 3/27 or 3/30 from the Sox now before any other 3B options materialize?

SoSH is funny because you have to become a trusted community member before you can post on the main board. (You earn this status by PM'ing the regular posters and they filter your comments.) It reminds me of the early days of BBS in which the admins were treated with massive respect and even referred to as "gods" -- does anyone else remember that term being in use?

I don't see it as being a throw away year, not like the yankees did in '08 with no clear rotation, and knowing they would have a lot of money coming off the table to sign the 3 they did.

The Red Sox have Lester , Youk and Fy, signed but not for life and we will start the season with maybe the best rotation in baseball. You can't throw that away , by not getting a bat and a legit third baseman.....I still have to think Theo has something up his sleeve...